The Temple Saint-Étienne (''Protestant St. Stephen's Church''; Alsatian: ''Schtefànskerch'') is a

Calvinist Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...

church located in the city of

Mulhouse Mulhouse (; ; Alsatian language, Alsatian: ''Mìlhüsa'' ; , meaning "Mill (grinding), mill house") is a France, French city of the European Collectivity of Alsace (Haut-Rhin department, in the Grand Est region of France). It is near the Fran ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Its congregation forms part of the Protestant Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine. Because of its central location on the main square of Mulhouse, the ''Place de la Réunion'', and its 97 metre high bell tower (the highest steeple in the department of

Haut-Rhin Haut-Rhin (); Alsatian: ''Owerelsàss'' or '; , . is a department in the Grand Est region, France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine; its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less pop ...

), it is sometimes referred to as the "Cathedral of Mulhouse" (''Cathédrale de Mulhouse''). The church was designed by the city architect Jean-Baptiste Schacre, who also designed the large

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

St. Stephen's Church ('' Église Saint-Étienne'').

History

Until 1858, the former parish church of St. Stephen stood at the location of the current building. The originally late Romanesque building from the 12th century was expanded at the beginning of the 14th century in the Gothic style. A substantially higher choir was added to the nave. In 1510, the Romanesque bell tower was remodelled in the style of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

. In 1707, the bell tower was crowned with an onion dome. In 1857, the city council of Mulhouse decided to replace the place of worship, which had come to be looked upon as dilapidated, by a new building. The city architect Schacre, who had already constructed the main synagogue of the city and the Catholic St. Stephen's Church, designed a church in the neo-Gothic style with a simple, rectangular ground plan without a transept and choir. In contrast to the long Catholic church, it was a squat, but very wide building. The bell tower, which is visible from quite a distance away, stands behind the building, in contrast to its model on the Freiburg Minster. The current church was built between 1859 and 1866. Since February 2009 and prospectively until late 2019, the church is subjected to a progressive restoration of all its exterior and interior parts. The work had started with the complete scaffolding of the steeple.

Furnishings

A considerable part of the furnishings of the previous building were used in the St. Stephen's church of Jean-Baptiste Schacre. The most important of all the artistic treasures of the city of Mulhouse are the large leaded-glass windows from 1320 to 1350, famous for their vivid design and rich colors. They were originally in the choir and were set into the

clerestory A clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey; from Old French ''cler estor'') is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye-level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, a ''clerestory' ...

windows. The

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

choir stalls of dark oak are from 1637. The stone

church monument Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the death, dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, a ...

of Baron Friedrich Ludwig Waldner von Freundstein (1735), an important work of the local late Baroque period, was erected in the assembly room of the new church. Of the Silbermann organ made by Johann Andreas Silbermann (1765), only the case remains; it was moved into the Reformed St. John's Church (Temple Saint-Jean) of the city, when the old church was torn down. The current organ comes from the workshop of Eberhard Friedrich Walcker, but has been altered many times since it was installed in 1866, especially by the Schwenkedel organ manufacturer. The Baroque

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

from 1647 is found in the Reformed church of Illzach today. The main steeple houses the largest set of bells of any Protestant church in France. The five bells were cast in 1867 in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Gallery

File:Stephanskirche Steinbachplatz Muelhausen 1900.jpg, View of St. Stephen's Church around 1900 File:Templeplacereunion.jpg, Other view of the façade File:Dom Mulhouse von Rue de Sauvage.JPG, The bell tower dominates the skyline of Mulhouse File:Mulhouse - Temple Saint-Étienne2.jpg, The church under restoration, 2010

References

*Scheurer, Marie-Philippe; Lehni, Roger; Menninger, Claude: ''Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin − Images du Patrimoine'', Le Verger, Illkirch-Graffenstaden, 1990,

External links

Website of the parish

Exterior and interior views

{{DEFAULTSORT:Temple Saint-Etienne Buildings and structures in Mulhouse

Gothic Revival church buildings in France Monuments historiques of Haut-Rhin Churches completed in 1866 1866 establishments in France